FIRST RIDE
P42
2014 KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R
The new KTM 1290 is a fabulous motorcycle made for bridging
the gap between the sport and
urban riding styles of today's motorcyclists. KTM also wanted the
new Duke to be a legitimate touring machine… no easy task given
that all three disciplines involve a
host of very specific tasks.
Ever since KTM's first big twin
motor, which was originally designed for its Adventure bike, was
introduced it has been featured in
a variety of different models rang-
ing from the first Super Duke in
2005 to the big Supermoto and
original RC8 Superbike. KTM
has been refining its twin motor
for several years now and each
time they manage to produce a
better product.
The last 990 Super Duke was
quite a bike for the street and had
plenty of power, but it needed an
upgrade. Even with the introduction of the latest RC8 R Superbike motor, KTM decided that
even more displacement was
needed in order to set the bar
well above the competition in the
naked-bike arena. Taking all the
lessons learned from the earlier
models and, of course, looking
at which way the market is moving, KTM chose to concentrate
its efforts on the naked bike market. Sportbike sales have really
taken a beating of late so why not
figure out how to take the best
aspects of all your various models and combine them into one?
Once customers figure out that
